Va'era - וָאֵרָא- Shemot / Exodus 6:2 - 9:35 Making Torah Personal ~Ahava

Studying selected verses of the parsha through the lens of Mussar---enabling us to make a connection between the weekly portion and our own lives.

The Jewish people are called upon not to earn God’s love but to live up to it. ~Held, Judaism is About Love, p.24

https://www.ktavtam.com/product-page/ahava For information on the artwork

https://www.sefaria.org/sheets/451208?lang=bi For sources on the verses

This parsha begins with the revelation of God's name and his power. The Hebrew word Va'era וָאֵרָ֗א means "I will see", and there will be both physical and spiritual things that will be seen.

Bullet Points /key concepts:

• The parsha opens with a continuation of the meeting between God and Moses at the 'burning bush' where God revealed Himself to Moses and informed him of his leadership role in releasing his people, which Moses resists.
• His brother Aaron is appointed as the spokesperson and they both appear before Pharaoh.
• Moses asks Pharaoh to “Let My People Go” there is a series of miraculous events, some copied by Egyptian sorcerers.
• The request is that B'nai Yisrael can worship God in the wilderness for 3 days.
• God uses 4 different expressions for redeeming B’nai Yisrael from Egypt
• Pharaoh refuses and 7 plagues come upon Egypt by God. During each plague, Pharaoh offers to let B'nei Yisrael leave, but as soon as the plagues stop, he changes his mind, remains stubborn, and refuses to free them.

We are commanded to love God, the neighbor, the stranger —and all of humanity—and we are told that the highest achievement of which we are capable is to live with compassion. This is considered nothing less than walking in God’s own ways. ~Held, Judaism is About Love.

The last part of the conversation between Moses and Hashem from the previous parsha, Shemot:

You questioned My ways, unlike Abraham, to whom I said, “Isaac shall be considered your seed,” and then I said to him, “Raise him up to Me as an offering”—and still he did not question Me. ~Rashi

G‑d said to Moses: I regret the loss of those who have passed away and are no longer found. Many times I revealed Myself to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; they did not question My ways, nor did they say to me, “What is Your name?” You, on the other hand, asked from the start, “What is Your name?” and now you are saying to Me, “You have not saved Your people!” ~Talmud, Sanhedrin 111a

...G-d reminds Moses that neither Avraham nor Yitzchok or Yaakov, to all of whom He had spoken far less that He had to Moses, ever questioned what they could have questioned about G-d’s judgments... They believed Me on My word alone, without the need for any miracles or proof. They could not have known me by My real name, as I had made promises and had not yet kept them. My true name is based not only on My ability to promise but on My ability beyond question to also keep My promises. Now, G-d says, “I will explain to you why I did not reveal Myself to the patriarchs as the attribute of Hashem. The promises I made to them referred to a distant future.” They would not live to see their fulfilment. The promises I made to you and through you to My people, will be fulfilled within the immediate future. ~Chizkuni

Moshe is uniquely interested in God’s names, so God gives Moshe deeper insight into the name of God that has been with humanity from the start, but never fully understood until now. We often think of Moshe’s prophecy as distinct because he had greater power than anyone who had come before him: he saw God clearly while others were unable to fully process the divine encounter. But perhaps Moshe’s greatest gift was his curiosity. Perhaps it was his willingness to inquire, above all, that granted him access to eternal truths. ~Rabbi David Kasher

The four bolded words are called אַרְבַּע לְ ׁשוֹנוֹת גְּאֻלָּה (arba leshonot geulah), four descriptions of redemption. According to the Talmud Yerushalmi (Pesahim 10:1), the four cups of wine that we drink on Pesah represent these four words. ~ Hadar Institute.

The four expressions of redemption (represented at the Passover Seder by the Four Cups of wine) relate to the four aspects of our liberation from Egypt:

1) “I will bring out”—our physical removal from the geographical boundaries of Egypt;

2) “I will save”—our delivery from Egyptian hegemony (Egypt was a superpower that enslaved and oppressed many nations and peoples outside its borders);

3) “I will redeem”—the elimination of any future possibility of enslavement, by the “great judgments” inflicted upon the Egyptians;

4) “I will take you to Myself as a nation, and I will be to you a G‑d”—our election as G‑d’s chosen people at Mount Sinai, the purpose of the Exodus. ~Nachmanides; Sforno

The previous verse, however, states the reason that the children of Israel did not listen to Moses—“because of their anguish of spirit and their cruel bondage.” Why, then, did Moses deduce from this that Pharaoh would not obey him?

But Moses knew that the power of a leader derives from his people. If he had not succeeded in penetrating their hearts, he would not be able to achieve anything on their behalf. ~Sefat Emet

Often in life, we are imprisoned by our own egos. The harder we struggle to free ourselves, the more trapped we become. ~ Rabbi Michael Katz and Rabbi Gershon Schwartz, Swimming in the Sea of Talmud.

An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him; for when he is once possessed with an error, it is, like a devil, only cast out with great difficulty. ~Samuel Butler (1835 -1902)

We are all Pharaohs or slaves of Pharaohs. It is sad to be a slave of a Pharaoh. It is horrible to be a Pharaoh. Daily we should take account and ask: What have I done today to alleviate the anguish, to mitigate the evil, to prevent humiliation? Let there be a grain of prophet in every man! ~Abraham Joshua Heschel

Draw yourself toward God with all your might. Remain strong, no matter how low you fall. Whether you go up or down, always yearn to come close to God. No matter how low you have sunk, stay resolved and determined to draw close to God and to yearn and pine for Him, and cry out to God. Do everything you can to serve Him in joy. Without this inner strength, you will never be able to truly approach God. ~Disciple of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Rabbi Natan of Nemirov, Sichot HaRan 48:4

The state of the heart defines, then, the essential character of a person. It's “hardening” connotes the willful suppression of the capacity for reflection, for self-examination, for unbiased judgments about good and evil. In short, the “hardening of the heart”becomes synonymous with the numbing of the soul, a condition of moral atrophy. ~ Nahum M. Sarna

We are often in a rush to get out of uncomfortable situations. We want to solve problems as quickly as we can so that we need not dwell on them. But it appears that bracketing our stay in Mitzrayim with the word 'Mitzrayim' functions as an invitation to actually sit in this space. It seems that the only way out of this constricted state of being is by going through it, not by circumventing it!

We can't overcome limitations that we've encountered unless we are willing to own our part in the situation: to be able to name and face our pain, to be able to claim our suffering, to be able to hold our loss. It is only then, when we see ourselves in the light of our darkness that we can truly leave it behind as we walk towards new horizons. We are being asked to dwell in our pain and discomfort so that we will be able to indeed move forward.

Without this process, it would appear that we will never be free from that which enslaved us - we would carry it with us, creating new Mitzrayims wherever we journeyed next. We won't be able to truly leave it behind us. ~ Rabbi Mimi Feigelson ,Mashpiah Ruchanit (spiritual mentor) of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies

The Torah’s “ways are ways of pleasantness, and all its paths are peace” (Proverbs 3:17)—our task is to create light, not to battle darkness. Nevertheless, there are times when we are forced to resort to battle, when we must vanquish those who seek to vanquish us. Thus Moses, the gentle shepherd of Israel, and Aaron, the ultimate man of peace, find themselves in the role of “judge and chastiser of Pharaoh,” crushing the might of Egypt and obliterating its icons and myths.

Therein lies the lesson to be derived from the fact that Aaron’s rod swallowed the “serpents of the Egyptians” after it had reverted back to its original form, rather than as a serpent itself. For even when he wages war, the Jew is not a warrior. Even when he consumes the serpents of the enemy, he is not a serpent himself, spewing poison and hate. His instrument of vengeance is as devoid of vengeful feeling as a petrified rod, as cold to the rage of war as a lifeless stick. ~The Lubavitcher Rebbe

Many of us struggle with ambivalence and uncertainty about ourselves, about our worth and lovability. God doesn’t share our ambivalence; God loves us more than we love ourselves. This is part of why self-loathing is so religiously problematic: we ought not hate what God loves. ~Held, Judaism is About Love, p.24